halloween!

halloween started with a party on my bed... exclusive for those wearing footie pajamas.

brothers

I'm trying to win over my new visiting teaching companion.

reading happy haunting Amelia bedelia, Brady was all "mom, is it REALLY blood?!"  that kid is so dang literal.  the whole book was mostly completely over his head, despite me trying to explain it to him.  plus side: now he knows about things like putting a leaf in the table and cracking the window.

second year in a row being a baseball player.  he might be following in his uncle Wally's footsteps.

all ready for school and waiting for the Quentin bus (as we lovingly call it... bless my dear friend Danielle for picking Brady up for school all the time)... swinging his perfectly matching rockies backpack.

does this kid look pumped or what?!  ps- I didn't have any suitable baseball socks for him so I cut up some little girl tights that had been stretched out after having been used so much.  we used rubber bands to hold up the tops of his baseball "socks" which maaaay have little Mary Janes on the toes.

Elizabeth doesn't know what it's called, but she is excelling at photobombing these days.

this is 100% natural and I can't even handle how much I love it.

I knew I was on to something. 

while the two were napping and the other two were at school, I used my precious kid-free time to finally tackle Abigail's horrible junk drawer and I turned it back into. craft drawer.  no true before picture because you couldn't even see anything really because it was so full.  I found a number of old papers from church and this photo of her and Elle from the primary missionary activity a month or two ago.

part way through.  this is once I got out all the stuff from the drawer and there was just this under layer left that had to all be sorted through individually.

Danielle sent me this picture from Brady's school halloween party.  throwing the cotton balls on the spider web.  Brady explained it to me after school but was all "and when you got it to stick it was kind of like you got a goal."

the treasures from the drawer.  I reimplimented a "special drawer" for each kid.  Brady has a drawer in his dresser and Abigail has a drawer in her desk.  I'm interested to see what will happen when they start running out of space. so far, everything is special enough for the special drawer.

eventually this,

turned back to this.  it's a craft drawer again!

we started Abigail on medication at the end of fall break.  one of the most significant side effects is a decreased appetite.  even knowing that, I am truly shocked at how Abigail's appetite has nearly disappeared.  she used to eat an entire peanut butter and Nutella sandwich, a whole apple (or equivalent in a fruit or vegetable... about a cup... I always use the same size containers), a yogurt, and at least a little handful of pistachios (or other equivalent nut/trailmix).  lately, she eats her yogurt, maybe 3-4 bites of sandwich, a bite or two of apple, and a taste or two of nuts.  at first she would just tell me that she didn't have enough time at lunch but now she's finally started telling me that she's not very hungry and I need to start packing her less food.  she has no idea that this is a side effect of the medication but never asks questions so I haven't had to explain anything to her.  I mean, even giving her just part of a sandwich instead of a whole one, I can see how she's only taken a few bites.  it just blows my mind.  I weighed her before I started her on medication so I would have a baseline... mom fail though because I guess I never wrote it down... I can only guess.  I weighed her again though and she's down to 42lbs.  it is possible that she's lost three pounds in 2.5 weeks?!

Elizabeth was Minnie Mouse for the library party, a lady bug for the ward party, and chose Elmo for halloween night.  she was the most adorable Elmo ever.  pictures don't really do it justice, but she looked HILARIOUS walking around all night. I got SO many comments from people we passed.  even teenagers and older kids were all "ummm, I just have to tell you that that is the best Elmo."  I wish I had gotten a decent picture but that just didn't occur to me so I just had some blurry snapshots.

it was cold but we all survived.  thank goodness for no wind, rain, or snow!  Andrew stayed toasty warm in some fleece footies with his fleece footie costume on top.  I was actually even a little worried about him overheating in his carseat/stroller.

Brady started sorting his candy (he's just methodical like that) and Abigail jumped over to help him.  it kind of made me nervous though because I don't want him to be aware of how much of his candy I'm going to eat.  ; )

another year in the books!  I can't believe little Andrew will be toddling around with them next year!

the inevitable

is life in fast forward?!  how is it already thursday?!  seriously i feel like just this morning i was comforting a crying abigail because she was sick and we had to stay home from church.  well, both kids are just as sick as ever (luckily it doesn't seem to bother either of them too much and brady is making up for it in sleep) but really... how does life move so fast?!  i'm being to wonder if i'm losing it.  i honestly feel like i am.

anyways, this morning we went to the library and met up with friends.  heaven forbid should our day not include hanging out with elle.  we returned this stack of books to the library because we're either bored of them, they're weird (obesity appreciation, girl with divorces parents celebrating seder, y'know), or it's actually a dvd and our dvd player is broken.   

well, i got online tonight to check our book count and realized i had A MILLION AND ONE things that were due on the 10th.  colossal fail.  seriously, i swear i JUST renewed everything.  so now i have almost $10 in fines i need to pay off.  which brings my library fines total for the past 2 years up to maybe $15.  not bad considering we've probably checked out thousands of books (the nerd in me wishes there was a way to track those stats... but mostly a way to keep track of a comprehensive list of the books and movies we've checked out) and really, this is just a nice opportunity to give back and donate a few bucks to the library, right?  even if we paid $15 a month, it would still be worth it.  although i love that that's not necessary.  this is a fine i'm happy to pay.  but really... did the last seven days actually happen?  i am so weirded out right now i'm having trouble finding words for it.  obviously.

brady was so excited to get this ball, he crawled right out of his pants.  that's what happens when skinny babies army crawl on their belly.  abigail never army crawled so i'm just kind of wondering how long it will be until he starts using his knees.  don't think i don't try to teach him correct posture.  it doesn't work though.  the second i touch him, he collapses in a fit of giggles.  most ticklish kid ever.

things for my calling have been so busy lately.  it's just "lds exhausted cont." all the time.  last week we had conference weekend... all ten hours of it.  monday was family night... i can't even remember what we did.  tuesday night christopher had a presidency meeting.  wednesday night christopher met us at a park for family pictures and then i stopped by home for two seconds to drop off kids before i went to my presidency meeting.  thursday night my honey was out of town so i dropped off my kids with a friend while i went to the church for stake auxiliary training and didn't get them in bed until after 10.  friday night i left the kids at home with my honey for a few hours while i went to the church for young women volleyball.  and saturday i found myself waking up at 6am and being gone from 7 - 2 for the youth temple walk.  i totally thought things would be so much easier once the temple walk was done on saturday but that's not quite the case yet.  

monday night i spent about four hours doing training.  tuesday i started planning for our ward halloween party and we had young womens at the church that night.  this morning was great because i took the kids to the library and the park and i was a great mom because abigail got to play a ton with elle and brady got to eat woodchips but then i dragged them around the dollar store for something like two hours (while abigail ran around like she was on crack and shattered a glass snow globe with glitter water all over the floor within five minutes of being there... although thankfully brady slept part of it and was in an exhausted coma zombie sort of state even when he was awake) while i scoped out prizes and did all sorts of math.  it is really a shame i could never get anything but straight C's.  raise your hand if you hate math!  alwaysandforever.

but happy day, if that isn't perfectly staying within a $50 budget then i don't know what is.  sadly, i got home and went through everything for the girl who i'll be turning this over to (don't you love when you get to hand over stuff like this?!) and realized that none of the whistles work.  so now i gotta go back tomorrow and convince the cashier to take those back and let me have something else (dollar store doesn't do returns so i'm interested to see how this will play out) and get that all organized before i drop it off at the girl's house.

we just hope this girl appreciates my over the top organizing skills of all of these prizes and the games they go to and who is running the games in which rooms and who will be bringing the games, and on and on.  just kidding... i know she's grateful.  i'm pretty much wrapping this neatly with a bow and placing it right in her lap.  she actually offered to make me baked goods to help return the favor.  i assured her i'm only doing it for the intrinsic value.

 

 

i always feel so heavy like i have such a weight... and this week, tonight especially, i feel like i am personally amputating my own arms, and both of my legs as well... the weight is lifting and i'm getting lighter but at what cost?  it's painful, a surreal, and life changing in a way i can't yet wrap my head around.

so, the next few days are doing to be awesome.  equal parts busy and awesome.

thursday- wrap up my part in this halloween party planning and go on a doubled date to the avs game!  the avs are one of two teams that are undefeated right now so let's all cross our fingers and toes that they pull of another win for us tomorrow night!

friday- not sure yet what fun the morning will hold, but that night i'm going to time out for women.  this is a first for me and i'm pretty excited!

saturday- time out for women until later in the afternoon.  hopefully we can do something fun together as a family that night... i cherish that time with just the four of us.

sunday- i've got byc but then i won't even get to be in our ward (three weeks in a row since it was general conference and then the kids being sick and now this...) because we'll be in my in law's ward for mark's homecoming talk!  i'm so excited for this.  of all my brothers in law, mark is the one that feels most like an actual brother to me.  he reminds me of my own brother, we have a sibling feeling relationship, and he even has the same birthday as my brother... i love him to death.  and ever since he got back from mexico, he speaks english with an accent and spanish voice intonations... just like walter did when he got back from his spanish speaking mission in san francisco.  anyways... all day hillier family fun.

and then it will be monday again... and i love mondays.  life moves fast.  i feel like i'm trying not to blink and yet somehow i'm still missing it!  just gotta soak it up as best i can.

ps- something else inevitable?  i finally had the opportunity to be THAT parent.  tonight while my honey and i were talking, abigail locked herself and brady in the upstairs bathroom.  try as i might, my efforts to describe to her how to unlock the door were not at all working and i didn't really want to send my christopher spidermanning on our roof in the pitch black, especially since i knew that window to our bathroom was locked.  so after a few minutes of abigail telling me the door was broken, i went got a wire hanger from the downstairs hall closet (tender mercy that i hadn't thrown them all away like i had previously wanted to) and worked it in the door handle.  miracle of miracles it actually worked and opened the door almost instantly!  i am still shocked... i've never been able to successfully break in like that... using a bobby pin might as well be an urban legend or something hollywood made up... and it actually worked!  i am so grateful for this and not really allowing myself to think of what would have happened if that didn't work.  what are you supposed to do when your three year old and your baby are locked in a room?  call an after hours lock smith?  just kidding... is that a job for the fire department?!  seriously... i'm so curious about this.  it's not like we could break down the door since brady was riiiiight there.  close call.  i'm one step closer to experiencing every parent horror story i've ever heard.

trunk or treat

this year, after much debate, baby girl ended up dressing up as elmo.  it was great and she giggled every time someone called her elmo instead of abigail.

my day was more than a bit hectic.  we started off our day by almost freezing to death as we attended the groundbreaking for our new church building in our neighborhood.  there are currently 4 wards (plus stake offices) meeting in our building right now.  it's a bit crazy so this new building is definitely exciting!  it was about 29* and muddy and sunny.  we had a number of speakers - stake relief society president, counselor in the stake presidency (my next door neighbor), the mayor of parker (fun fact: i had thanksgiving dinner with him way back in the day when chris and i were dating), my father in law - and a song from the choir and some random other things and it was great.  it was the first groundbreaking i've been to and i loved it, even if i'd lost feeling in my toes a third of the way through.  i did wear my skinny jeans under my skirt to keep me somewhat warm though and that turned out to be a very good call.

anyways... the day was hectic because after that i was busy cooking with baby girl and gathering together last minute things needed for the trunk or treat.  yesterday was my first time ever making cupcakes and i grossly underestimated the amount of time it would take to bake and frost two dozen of those suckers.  especially since i hadn't thought ahead enough to set out butter to soften so i had to take a bunch of time looking online for a decent frosting recipe that didn't require softened butter.  i was a hot mess by the time i finally got to the church at 4:30 to help set up.  honey took care of getting baby girl up and dressed in her costume.  i wish i'd thought to lay out her clothes before we put her down for nap but i didn't.  so i gave honey directions to dress her in all black, plus elmo.  i should have specified that she wear her red shoes.  instead she wore her pink moon boots.  i mean, snow boots.

everything turned out just fine though and baby girl had a lot of fun.  and i am super relieved to cross this off the list of things to worry about.

 

 

 

 

family picture!

i so wish we had a family picture from last year but apparently we don't.  just this one of baby and me.  

but we do have this family picture from 2010...

as well as these from 2010...  can you believe baby girl actually used to be a baby?!  

i forget sometimes, or all the time, that baby girl used to actually be a baby.  one that drooled and ummm basically just drooled and did nothing else.  couldn't stand, couldn't sit, couldn't talk.  basically like a stuffed animal that required feeding.  which is funny because that halloween that she was a monkey, i had so many people (we were living on stanford campus) see me holding her and do a double take, then come back and tell me that they'd initially thought she was a stuffed animal and didn't realize i was holding a real baby.

and that concludes our stroll down memory lane...

i'm guessing baby girl played hide and seek at joy school this past wednesday because she came home talking about it when i didn't even know she knew what hide and seek was.  last night, she did this...

and waited for my honey to come find her.  it was precious and she thought it was the best game ever.

so a minute later i was standing in a different spot and she decided to hide again, telling me "i want daddy come find you."  ("you" means "me"... like how she always says "i want mommy hold you")

hiding

so christopher would look around saying "is abigail in this cabinet?" and "is abigail in the oven?" and  every time she would quietly answer him.  except of course she said yeah to everything.  because unlike most toddlers, she almost never says "no."  even when i ask her if she wants a banana and the answer is no, she'll answer by saying "all done banana."  ha.

my christopher shaves far more often these days (basically every day except saturday) than what he used to (see the above picture from 2010) at stanford when he typically just shaved once a week... for church.  still, that didn't prevent him from accidentally grooming elmo with his face. 

i wonder how long it would have stayed there if i hadn't mentioned it to him.  

and just one more thing of non importance.  have i mentioned lately or ever, that christopher never really got over holding baby girl like a baby?  i reached a point a looooong time ago that i stopped cradling her because i knew she didn't like it and it was easier to hold her upright.  my honey still hasn't reached that point.

 

 

and this was my costume this year.  because i'm not into halloween enough to put forth effort for something i'm going to only wear for two hours.  this required duct tape, scissors, and about six minutes of my time.  and i've wanted to do it for years but this is the first time i've been pregnant over halloween!  (except for 2009 when apparently i was knocked up but just hadn't taken a pregnancy test yet...)

 

 

and this is what i decided to use for my 31 weeks bump update.

man that was long.  people that aren't spending this afternoon blogging, what do you do on a sunday afternoon when your husband and child are asleep?